Free Airline Tracking Service announced by Inmarsat

In response to the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 the London-based UK satellite operator Inmarsat announced the firm is ready to offer a free basic service tracking commercial airlines around the world. The announcement came ahead of a conference hosted by the International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO held on 12-13 May 2014 in Montreal, Canada.

“Our Equipment is on 90% of the worlds wide-body jets already. This is an immediate fix for the industry at no cost to the industry,” Inmarsat senior vice-president Chris McLaughlin said according to BBC News.

Inmarsat proposes a solution where at minimum all passenger jets should transmit their GPS data, headings, speeds and altitudes over the Inmarsat global satellite network every 15 minutes. The company already offers a similar service relaying distress calls from ships of its network free of charge.

This proposal is one of many others seeking to prevent a repeat of the MH370 disaster.